So if you eat your exercise calories back...

From what I have seen when this topic comes up is that it depends on the person. Some swear by eating exercise calories back and others swear by not eating them back. If you are finding that you are not loosing by eating your back try only eating half of them back and see what happens.

check my ticker and yes I eat my exercise cals

To be honest some days I do others not even close. I try to stagger my calories so I keep my metabolism guessing. I have heard if you consistantly eat the same and lose your body will adjust to that level. I don't know how true that is but it seems to work for me. I also don't let myself get hungry, makes me crabby.

Thanks, I'm thinking of trying to eat just half back and see if it works.

My daughter changed her cal goal to = her BMR and started exercising at least 30 minutes a day but only counting it as 1 cal burned. Everyone has seen the difference but she's only weighing every 6 weeks due to getting discouraged from the scale not moving. It's working for her.

I just got a HRM because I was always suspicious that the MFP estimates of calories burned were a little on the high side. So, before getting it when I would work out if I actually worked out for 40 minutes I would only put in 30. Then, I would eat back about 2/3 of my exercise calories. I have found with my HRM the calories were estimated high by MFP. MFP said that I burned 693 calories doing eliptical and when I did 45 minutes with my HRM I actually burned about 450. That is quite a difference. So my point with all this is that eating back your calories is a good thing if you are sure of the amount of calories you are burning. If not, you could be inadvertently going over you daily calories and never know it.

I generally don't worry too much about it, except on days that I am going to be exceptionally active. Like tomorrow - I'm going on a 9-mile hike in the mountains. I will definitely be eating more tomorrow to keep my energy levels up. But, if I'm doing only my 40 minutes of cardio at the gym, not so much.

In general, I only eat more if I feel like my energy levels are flagging.

I do eat them, but with exceptions. I do not eat past full or force it. I do not increase the volume of food eaten during breakfast/lunch/dinner meals as I don't want to be overfull or stretch my stomach. The extra calories (for me) are not an excuse to eat food with poor nutritional value- so I try to make sure they are healthy. I am really wanting to be healthy, not just lose weight, so it seems counterproductive to me to eat well and then put junk in to offset a workout.. a good workout uses a lot of important stuff, so I try to put important stuff back. This is the hardest part for me because it is so, so, much easier to eat one high cal/low nutrient item like a beer or some ice cream than piece together enough with lower cal/nutritious foods.

Usually I get them in by adding a banana and a bit of peanut butter to the shake I normally have. Sometimes if working out in the morning I might have a pre-workout shake, but then eat a "2nd" breakfast after exercising like oatmeal, greek yogurt with berries, or some eggs. I also may add some "treats" to my snacks that would be too "spendy" on my non exercise days like nuts, an avocado, a hard boiled egg, and higher calorie fruits that I don't eat as often. These are also the days that I may choose some higher carb options to add to my regular meals like wild and brown rice, whole wheat pasta, or a starchy vegetable which I normally try to avoid like peas, corn, or potatoes.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you are looking for overall health vs. just weight loss, I believe that what you eat to use up your exercise calories may matter just as much as whether or not to eat them... I would venture to say that if you fill them in with fast food or other junk you might be better off without, strictly from a nutritional perspective.

Lastly, I log my foods very honestly and accurately and am also very careful not to overestimate my workouts- sometimes this can be especially hard because intensity/effort is not a factor for many of MFP's calculations... my 5mph jog for 30 minutes may be the hardest thing I do, keeping my hr at target, working up a dripping sweat, and getting the lungs and blood pumping. Whereas a 5mph jog for 30 minutes for you may be your warm-up and not even cause you to sweat or increase your hr or breathing. Or my bike ride at 7.5 mph is hard work every minute because I am going uphill, whereas your 7.5 mile ride was all on the flats and fairly easy. I have not found a great way thus far to feel super confident that the estimation for exercise calories is extremely accurate. If you go to log your exercise in, really consider the number it spits out and whether or not you feel you worked that hard. If in doubt I use this... http://www.shapesense.com/fitness-exercise/calculators/heart-rate-based-calorie-burn-calculator.aspx to get a alternate method of estimating calories burned based on heart rate. I can usually guesstimate my average heart rate by the amount of effort I am giving.. if unsure take a minute the next time you do cardio and see what it is when you are really working, moderately working and casually working for future reference.

I hope this helps you make a decision. Sorry for writing so much :yawn: And just remember that this is a process not written in stone. If you try something and find it is not working well, change it up, make adjustments, and reevaluate.

I would eat back my calories until I was full. I didn't force calories down and I didn't run around looking for something with 37 calories in it.

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